According to the AACN's report, "Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Competencies in Specialty Areas: Adult, Family, Gerontological, Pediatric, and Women's Health" (2002), "Competencies are the domain or body of knowledge and skills that essentially define a profession or discipline. This domain of competencies guides training programs, provides expectations for employers, and drives the nature of assessment instruments and performance standards for credentialing institutions, certifying agencies, and accrediting organizations" (p. 14). The core competencies for nurse practitioner graduates are intended to help candidates used what they have already learned and require a graduate-level education...

As described by AACN, advanced practice nursing preparation includes ". . . graduate nursing core content (e.g., research, health policy, ethics, and more) and advanced nursing practice content (e.g., advanced health assessment, advanced physiology and pathophysiology, and advanced pharmacology)" (p. 13). A recapitulation of current entry-level competencies required for a clinical nursing doctorate upon graduation or entry into practice is provided in Table 1 at Appendix a. A careful reading of these competencies indicates that virtually all areas of the APNs'